Kanye's KIDS SEE GHOSTS Rollout Is a Hot Mess

After arguing that slavery was a choice, defending Donald Trump, and generally confusing the hell out of people for the better part of the last few months, Kanye West's new album Ye landed with a bit of a thud last week. What could have been a raw work of art about mental illness felt muted, and overshadowed by the rest of Kanye's behavior. But now, here's Kanye trying it again, this time with Kid Cudi, on KIDS SEE GHOSTS, which, to be honest, has rolled out pretty messily!

Firstly, the livestream of the album that was supposed to start at midnight reportedly didn't get going until 2am. And now, it seems there's some discrepancy in song titles. Louis Prima is credited as a sample on "4th Generation," but the Big Band legend's voice only shows up on "Cudi Montage," and Pitchfork notes the songs are out of sequence and mislabeled on Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play and Deezer.

Aside from that, on first blush the album provides more memorable and thrilling moments than Ye. It feels haunted, with dirge-like beats, laughing children, and the faraway, crackling sample of Prima's "What Will Santa Claus Say." It remains to be seen whether Kanye truly used up any lingering goodwill, but there's this vibe of exhaustion toward him. So the question around Kids See Ghosts is: will Cudi lift Kanye up, or go down with the ship? And, more importantly, when will we get the actual song titles?

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